PenguinSix

If you have about 20 minutes, then this video from Ted.com is worth watching.

It tells the story of Natasha, an Amerasian girl born in Korea and eventually adopted by a couple in the US. The story is one of a movie, so much so that I understand Francis Ford Copella’s Zoetrope studio has purchased the rights.

Operation Jaque Helicopters

Originally uploaded by penguinsix

This is the MI-17 helicopter used in the Ingrid Betancourt rescue operation. I found these photos deep in a Colombia military document that was released as part of the coverage of Operation Jaque.

The paint looks pretty new. It’s a good thing FARC rebels aren’t that aware of aircraft up close, or they might have realized something odd was up. These don’t look like helicopters that have been flying around in the jungle filled with bugs and whatnot.

The London Times and others are asking whether the Ingrid Betancourt rescue was actually staged to cover up a $20 million ransom payment. Swiss Radio is citing ‘reliable sources’ as saying a ransom was paid. Not entirely sure why the Swiss are so up on Colombian events, but we’ll see this story play out over the next few days

I’ve not been a fan of France24 since it launched. By the fact that we live in DC, we benefit from the excellent service called MHZ Networks which has a deal to broadcast France24 over the local cable network.

France24’s website is lame. Their set is visually unappealing, and they have a lot of talking heads who don’t really say much. But in the coverage of the rescue mission in Columbia, they’ve been smashing US coverage left and right. Live press conferences from the military, interviews with the key players, coverage of the arrivals of the family and their reunification. They’ve done a really good job covering this story (which is a bit of an obsession in France).

Anyway, we’ll see if they can keep it up. Russia Today (another of MHZ’s stations) hasn’t had much, and I haven’t flipped the dish to catch Al Jazeera English service but I doubt they’ll have much interesting to say.

France 24 Special Coverage

Buried in the story is the best bit:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/02/AR2008070202502.html?hpid=topnews Colombia Rescues Hostages Held by Guerrilla Group for Years

…”Santos said the rescue, dubbed Operation Jaque and carried out by Colombian military intelligence, began with the infiltration of a FARC squad commanded by guerrilla known as Cesar. The squad has controlled a group of hostages in recent years, he said. Jaque is a Spanish chess term meaning “check.”

In a ruse in which Cesar was told the hostages were to be flown to a meeting with the FARC commander known as Alfonso Cano, the hostages were brought together and put on board one of two helicopters supposedly operated by a humanitarian organization, Santos said. In fact, the organization was fictitious, and the helicopters — painted white — belonged to the Colombian army, he said.

While the hostages were flown to freedom, Cesar and another member of his squad who were to accompany them to the meeting were “neutralized in the helicopter” and will be brought to justice, the defense minister said.

Betancourt said the hostages were excited, curious and somewhat apprehensive when told they were being moved to another location.”

I wondered if they were going to put us as clowns in another circus,” she said on the airport tarmac. “I did not want to lend myself to that.”She said she thought the men who arrived on the helicopters were members of the FARC. She and the other hostages felt angry and humiliated when they were bound hand and foot after being put on board, she said.

After their helicopter took off, “suddenly, something happened,” she said, and she saw the guerrilla commander being held on the floor, stripped and blindfolded.

“The chief of the operation said, ‘We are the national army, and you are all free!’” Betancourt said. “The helicopter almost fell” from the sky. “We started jumping. We screamed. We cried. We couldn’t believe it.”

It’s simple really

You need to watch these two minutes of the movie ‘The Layer Cake’.

In those two minutes you’ll realize this girl is the one you should warn your sons about. Do not get involved with a girl like this. She is bad. She is evil. She will really mess things up in your life.

In those two minutes you’ll also look back on your own youth and bang your head against a wall saying ‘why didn’t I take the chance when I had the opportunity’

Quite a catch-22…

High tide + massive storm front = Tropical Storm waves outside on the seawall.  I wonder if I will have a canoe come morning.  Probably will float away somewhere down the Bay.

I had two firsts today.  The first time I paid over $4 for a tank of gas ($4.04) and the first time I had a $70 fillup.  And this is the same time I’m looking to buy a new truck.  How much is the Mini Cooper?

In case you are wondering, I had to buy a new mailbox today.  This is what happens when a RAV4 swerves to avoid a cat, takes out all the mailboxes for my block, along with 20 feet of a telephone pole.  Amazingly, we had Internet, phone and power throughout.  The driver was taken to the hospital.  The cat was put in the truck full of road kill.

My mailbox is the one with the black front.

Got hit by the AMT this year.  Apparently our combined income and the family size is just perfect for those folks who get caught up in the AMT. I shouldn’t really say bite.  I should say devastating hunk of income going to taxes.  I tried all the deductions I could but basically the AMT says ‘yea, that’s nice, now where is the money?’   Kind of like the mafia in the movie Goodfellas.